20 Best Cases for the Apple iPad Air

Posted October 28, 2013

Autumn in the U.S.A. brings cool weather, football, and—a new tradition since 2011—fresh iPads for the holiday shopping season. These tablets generate enough excitement to rival all the eyeballs on the NFL, and for 2013, the new full-size model is the iPad Air, a delicious-looking merger of two of Apple’s most popular brands. As the name suggests, this fifth-gen tablet is radically lighter (just a pound), tossing back the SlimFast with even more abandon than the first MacBook Air did. The iPad Air is trimmer, too, so many older iPad cases won’t fit it perfectly. Seeing as the iPad Air starts at $499, you’ll want a case that’s snug and seamless—so here are 20 of our early favorites.

New Trent Airbender 2.0

The Survivor not tough enough? Now we get a bit harder-core in this tour of iPad Air protective apparatus. In parallel with the iPad Air release, New Trent unveiled the Airbender 2.0, a heavy-duty case-and-keyboard combo. It features a multi-directional stand (for vertical or horizontal viewing), mounted into the back of a protective case that grips and shields the rear of the iPad Air. Also included is a thin Bluetooth keyboard to help you type straight into the iPad Air on a desk. You can use the iPad Air propped up in a groove along the back of the keyboard, or with the keyboard freely separated. (The keyboard is also the cover; when the whole works is buttoned up, the keyboard protects the iPad Air’s screen.)

All of this functionality comes at what looks like a low cost—just $54.95—and the keyboard/cover shuts off the tablet automatically, like with the Smart Cover and its magnets. Airbender 2.0 is expected to hit the street on November 1.